We're in the final couple chapters now, and I cannot emphasize how much your reviews and faves and such have meant to me. Really, you guys have made this so worth my time in writing it and all. I cannot thank you all enough.

It's going to be (an attempt at) smooth sailing, but not really? There's a lot they'll have to get over, but isn't that what sequels are for later on down the road?

11. The Way Forward

Six days.

It had been six days, and it still did not feel like it was long enough for them to take in what had happened last Saturday.

The police never came on account that it would be most likely a horrible idea for them to show up with the Guys in White, who constantly were on the search for Phantom among other things. Vlad Masters… Plasmius had disappeared mere minutes after the fight, and it could not be said if he was almost dead or just pretending to be. No one wanted to talk about the notion, much less think about it.

Then there was the recovery, and that was just the start of it all.

Danny had insisted his parents get professional medical help the next day, and even though they said they would, the subject was dropped. Little things were seen, though- things that Danny noticed, tired as he was.

His parents did not wear gloves, keeping their sleeves rolled up when they could. If they could help it, they would order out instead of cooking at home. The emergency money was exactly that now- used in an emergency, and a family working to heal and figure out how to pull themselves back together was considered an emergency. At least, in the eyes of the Fentons, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley it was.

It was unspoken knowledge at home that they knew about what was going to happen with their wrists and ankles. There were going to be scars there, possibly for the rest of their days. There were also red and angry burns, almost akin to first degree burns. In a sick twist of irony, Danny would apply the Fenton Burn Cream to the wounds with some hisses of pain, but no protests as to what needed to be done.

The entire time, there was little speaking about what had happened that Saturday.

School was a painful affair; Jazz was kept home, and Danny would return her schoolwork to her. She kept in constant contact with her teachers, always seeking notes and looking to call the school for any missing time or missing notes that might have been taken. Her obsession to deal with school versus what had happened would have almost been funny, had the situation been lighter.

It was almost worse with Danny; the teenager had taken painkillers that week when he deemed it necessary, not to mention the workload was becoming more and more with school almost finished. Sam and Tucker helped however they could with assignments, but they had their own course load to deal with in turn. It certainly did not help that even with how sympathetic Lancer was to the entire thing, he had to keep up the pressure on the teenager.

He did make one promise, however.

If he came in for a couple of days for schoolwork and tutoring, he might be able to scrape him by with some extra credit.

Danny leapt on that chance in less than a heartbeat.

It was Friday evening, four-fifty in the afternoon.

The ghost portal had been closed, and Maddie was standing in the kitchen with the refrigerator door open and a furrowed gaze. Jack poked his head in with a blink; he was in a bright blue Hawaiian shirt with FentonWorks logos tacked all over the cloth. His wife smiled a little at the sight as she turned her head. "I haven't seen that shirt before."

"And I haven't seen that smile in a week, so that makes wearing this worth it," Jack replied gently, shuffling into the room with slippers. "Thinkin' of actually making dinner tonight?"

Maddie shut the doors to the appliance with a soft sigh. "If you call making hash browns and eggs dinner. What is it Danny says?" She closed her eyes. "Anything can be dinner if you try hard enough?"

Jack had to chuckle a little at this, taking a seat on one of the chairs. An order for a new dining set had been placed three days ago, only arriving about four hours prior. It had given Jack something to do with his hands, slow as it might have been. He would not admit how much it hurt to not be able to do much right then, given the burns on his wrists and other joints. Nevertheless, he was grateful for something to do.

"As long as it's not sausages," another voice chimed in quietly. "We don't need another hot dog disaster, thanks."

Jack looked up from the table; Jazz gently edged herself into the room with a little smirk of sorts. The hole was still in the kitchen, but the dust and dirt had been cleaned up and thrown away. The girl glanced at said hole and back to her parents. "Another project for later on?"

Maddie shrugged slightly. "Not a bad idea, honestly. Could figure out how to get some sort of ghost detector in here that also passed Danny's DNA through."

"Should probably do that to the whole house at this rate," Jack mumbled, fiddling with his phone.

The front door opened, and the lady Fentons turned to stare at the newcomer before Maddie exhaled a breath she did not realize she was holding. Danny looked inside uncomfortably, dropping his bookbag by the shoes. "…hi?"

"Hey, Danny!" Jack hollered from the kitchen. "How was school?"

He winced, shutting the door and locking it. They had gotten someone to the house Tuesday to look at the damage done to the front of the house, and Thursday, the contractor had dropped by the apartment to install a new door. "Okay? Ish? Just finishing up some stuff for the end of the year to pass Lancer's class. Nothing too big." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry I'm late."

Maddie waved a hand slightly. "It's all right. We were just discussing dinner; anything you want in particular?"

"Actually…"

It was only twenty-five dollars for the three pizzas, two of the two-liter bottles, and the side of cinnamon rolls; Danny told him to keep the forty as tip. The delivery boy gaped at the money, and Danny mumbled something about having to come out to their place. 'Think of it as an apology.'

The four of them had taken their plates and drinks into the living room, eating in silence as best they could with burns on their wrists. Danny's own remained untouched, watching the family and feeling his stomach twist and turn with knots. How was he supposed to eat when they were all sitting in pain and he was finally on the road to recovering and getting back his rapid healing factor? It just did not feel right; of all the times to get it back, why now?

Jazz glanced up from mid-bite of her pepperoni and sighed, setting the slice down. "All right, spill."

Danny's head jerked up from his food. "Huh?"

"You haven't talked about it all week, so we. We might as well just get it out of the way because the eggshell side-stepping is getting to be a bit much." Jazz set her paper plate down and leaned back against the sofa, scanning the room. "All of us."

Jack looked over at Maddie, swallowing his food. She sighed and set her own plate down in turn. "Guess there's no use in prolonging the inevitable, hm?"

Danny shook his head, setting his plate on the table now as well. "Can't believe it's time for the therapy session."

"Ha ha," Jazz said dryly. "Very funny."

None of them were laughing.

"…so, I guess I'll go first and." Danny rubbed the back of his neck. His burns had slowly disappeared over time that week at long last, but that was merely the physical aspect. There was something else he needed to figure out for sure, and he was not entirely sure how to go about it. "I guess I'll talk about whatever the hell happened."

The trio of family members waited patiently for him, keeping their eyes on the teenager. Danny shifted in his chair before looking down.

He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry you guys got involved in something that you shouldn't have been." It was soft, pained even. "I… I did end up going to Colorado, but it sure wasn't by choice. Vlad ended up kidnapping me for an experiment." Now he closed his eyes. "He wanted my ghost half for something."

Maddie gently rubbed her arm, listening to her son. "You- you don't have to tell us everything if you don't want to. It doesn't have to be today."

"No, no. I should," he protested quietly. "You guys deserve to know after- after what happened."

Maddie's eyes softened at this. She turned to Jack, who nodded gently. Let him speak, let him say his piece. Then they could talk about whatever they wanted to say.

He took a deep breath; his throat tightened up at the thought, and he exhaled slowly. "He. He was working on a clone of me- an actual clone of me. Half-ghost and everything. Apparently there had been a lot of mistakes made, and I had been unknowingly destroying these clones. One of them survived." He had a small smile on his lips at the mention. "Her name is Dani- with an 'I.' And she's pretty cool." The smile faded quickly, though. "But she's unstable."

Jazz covered her mouth at this. Jack's eyes narrowed. "Is she the clone he was working on?"

"No, it was another clone. He was close to being done with it, but when I got captured again, Dani ended up being picked as the guinea pig to try to overshadow me and force me to morph midway for a DNA sample." He sighed. "It didn't happen because Vlad screamed at her and she got pissed, broke me out… yeah. We were gonna lay into him; didn't even do that much."

Maddie blinked. "Surprise attack?"

Danny smiled again a little. "Yeah. Didn't see it coming, but- we knocked him into his primary clone and ended up destroying it." Again, the smile faded. "He was pissed."

Jazz pursed her lips. "More than he was when he was here?"

The hybrid shook his head. "No, but it was pretty damn close." He wrapped his arms around himself now and opened his eyes. He was tired- he was so exhausted, but he needed to get this out now. "Never saw him so mad until right then… least until last Saturday when he was here and. Y'know."

There was silence again, hanging around the family as Danny shifted in his chair. Jack did not say anything, glancing over at Maddie. She was biting the inside of her mouth and thinking. Jazz looked over at her as well, raising a brow. She jerked her head gently at Danny now. 'Go on,' she seemed to indicate.

She sighed heavily now. "Showed you were Phantom, correct?"

Danny winced. It was time for that talk, wasn't it? "Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I never said-"

"Danny."

He shut up, looking down at the floor.

"Listen, after what we've said over the last year or two… truthfully?" Maddie glanced over at Jack with a soft sigh. "We don't blame you. What we did was inexcusable; we wanted to dissect Phantom, we wanted to study him and… what we wanted to do was not right." She looked back at her son, feeling tears sting her eyes. "And we can't change that now. We can't any of it back. I'm sorry."

Danny rubbed his arms slightly, feeling his own throat lump up.

Maddie inhaled slowly. "We know you're probably still terrified of us for that, and- again, we don't blame you. You hid it from us for a reason, and… I'm sorry for that. But I know I." She had to wipe her eyes with the palms for her hands. "I want to try and rebuild that trust between us, if. If you want to."

Jack watched her lean over with her head in her hands, and he glanced at his son. He, too, was crying.

He did not know where to start with this all. Should he start with Vlad? With what Maddie said?

It all hurt. They all knew it. Jack inhaled slowly now as well. "As do I. But…"

Danny glanced over at his dad, wiping his eyes.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry." Unlike Maddie, he never broke his gaze with the teenager. Danny chewed his lower lip, swallowing that lump. "I'm sorry that… I trusted Vlad over you for so long." His gaze softened. "I was an idiot, Danny. And before you tell me I'm not," he added, seeing the boy open his mouth, "I was. I am an idiot. I can't begin to make up for what I've done."

Jazz shifted in her seat now.

"Like your mother- I want to change and make things better between us. I'm not entirely sure where to start, but regardless… whatever I can do to make things better, however I can help you out or- or not. If you want us to stay out of your way, we can do that too." He smiled tiredly, leaning forward in the chair. "Phantom or not, you're our son. That won't ever change."

Danny ducked his head finally. "I'm sorry. For everything. I really am."

Jazz shook her head. "So. Are we all alright now?"

"I hope so, Jazz," the teenager mumbled. "I really do. I…"

His sister shook her head and gingerly stood up, walking over to the chair. Danny stood up, and she embraced him tightly; he returned the gesture, letting out a long sigh and closing his eyes. She smiled slightly, closing her eyes. "You're doing surprisingly good, little brother. Just- don't keep kicking yourself. All right?"

Danny almost chuckled before a soft grunt escaped; Jack had come from behind and was squeezing both of his kids in a tight hug. Even with the marks on his wrists and ankles, he kept the two close. Maddie sniffled slightly before she wrapped her arms around Jazz and Jack. Danny remained in the middle, his head poking out. "Getting… squished…"

Maddie laughed at this, as did Jack. Jazz could only smile. It was small, but it was a start.

He would not have called it 'okay', truthfully, but it was better than simply walking on eggshells about the whole thing. And that was the most important thing; the healing process could truly begin.